Kiss Cam, crowd psychology and all that fuss about Valentine's Day
by Evanes
Summary: [Starshipping] Jack Atlas found a perfectly convenient way to make those two idiots get together this Valentine's Day. In front of 150,000 people.


**A/N: This story was written for vampirekitty03's (Tumblr) request for a Starshipping Valentine's Day fic. I do not own YugiOh! and its characters.**

**This is the first time I've written something like this (if you've read my previous stories, you'll probably know why), but it was a lot of fun and it was thanks to the request that I finally got down to writing this prompt I'd alwasy wanted to but been procrastinating XD **

**I hope you'll enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it :) And last but not least, HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!**

* * *

The arena was filled to its fullest capacity with people. Heated audience cheering, clapping, hailing his name as Jack Atlas's D-Wheel slowed to a stop. Spotlights immediately aimed at him, all the mega-sized billboards exploding with colors declaring the winner of yet another glorious Riding Duel of this tournament. On the other side of the oval racing track, his opponent hung their head in defeat, vehicle still fuming. Jack spared their face one last glance, before turning around and began driving into the tunnel leading down to the basement floor where all the preparatory procedure for the duels took place, the noise and blinding lights soon fading behind him.

Grabbing a can of energy drink from the table, Jack flopped down onto the black leather couch and grunted. It was only his first match but he was already geting jaded. The tournament was claimed to be the"clash of the titans" - a showdown among the best duelists from the whole continent; but so far, he had yet to find any that could spark his interest, let alone actually challenging him. All his opponents didn't seem to have gotten any better than his last encounter with them, and the only one he really wanted to go against was not amongst them.

Yusei had turned down the invitation to join the tournament, saying he had "projects he could not halt". The recollection made Jack grit his teeth. He knew it was just some sort of excuse, seeing as Yusei had come to watch him duel today, along with... Well, now that he thought about it,_ that_ was probably the main reason his teammate had declined the invitation - just to spend time with his new-found...whatever. Jack's eyes twitched. He had known this day would eventually come (even though Yusei wouldn't admit it, blushing bright red all over and stuttering denials whenever Jack pointed it out to his face), still, it was hard to push away the irritation of he fact that your best friend would rather hang out with some stranger - to Jack, at least - than joining you in competitive dueling, which is absolutely the best thing to do in the world, no doubt.

Keeping the scowl on his face, Jack stood up and decided to take a walk around. His next duel was scheduled to start at 10:30, which was more than an hour from now, and he had plenty of time to kill while the second duel took place. He exited the VIP room and took the lift down 2 floors, reaching the technical area - where all the control rooms for lights, cameras, conditioning,... were placed and all the staff were rushing about, busily doing their job in the interval between two duels. The atmosphere was similiar to that of a crowded bee's nest, a constant buzzing sound filling the air. There was, however, a particularly crowded room that was bustling with frantic chatting and loud exclamations along with unrestained laughter that caught his attention.

"What are you doing?" - Violet eyes narrowed skeptically at the grand display screen in the middle of the room, surrounded by technicians and crew members, some of which didn't even belong to the department the room was in use for - cameras and billboards. There seemed to be something extremely funny going on, because a man with dark brown hair with a moustache - Jack assumed that he was he one in charge - didn't even quiver a the not-so-pleasant aura that the famous duelist was giving off. If anything, he was struggling to hold back his grin to reply:

"Ah, King Atlas, congratulations on winning your first duel! We were just testing out this new entertainment activity on our audience during the break. It's called "Kiss Cam"!"

"Kiss Cam?" - Jack stared cluelessly at the display screen. It was only then that he noticed the footage has been framed into a heart shape with a large, girly "KISS CAM" text on top. The camera appeared to be sliding aimlessly around until someone in the room shouted "Stop!" and in the middle of the heart shape were two people holding hands and talking intimately to each other. The shocked look they made as soon as they realised their faces were on the billboards for 150.000+ people to watch made the whole room burst out laughing again.

"Yes, Atlas-sama. You see, this is actually a quite popular activity that has been carried out during matches of many other games around the world. And in celebration of this year's Valentine's Day which was the same date as the opening of our tournament, the organiser has decided to do this for the first time in Japan!"

Valentine's Day huh, that would explain the piles of gifts and flowers flooding his place these past few days - Jack pondered, but the brown-haired man continued enthsiastically without interruption:

"It's very simple: We look for a potential couple in the crowd and put them onto the center of the heart shape, at which point they'll have to kiss!"

"What if the chosen people wouldn't oblige?"

"No way, Atlas-sama. The more they stall, the more the crowd will pressure them into doing it" - The man laughed - "Just think about it, hundreds of thousands pairs of eyes watching you closely, expecting it to happen; no one has the nerve to turn it down. Besides, we aways survey the audience beforehand to choose couples having strong PDAs, to make sure they wouldn't mind it too much."

Jack huffed as the couple on the screen, as if on cue, pulled each other into a quick kiss and the surrounding people started clapping and cheering joyously. He had only been curious because he had nothing better to do, and by this point, his interest had already run out. What did he care about putting random ordinary people on the giant billboards, where there should only appear faces of the most victorious, remarkable duelists like him, and forcing them to eat each other's face up?

Turning his back to the noisy bunch of technicians and crew members, Jack was just about to walk away when something clicked in his mind, making the King stop abruptly with an evil grin on his face.

"Alright," - The man who had been talking to Jack stood up, clapped his hands and announced - "that would be the last couple, put on the tournament's ad clip and prepare for the next..."

"Wait." - All the staff immediately paused whatever they were doing to look up at the King, who still had a frighteningly wide smile on his lips as he spoke - "There's another I would like to see up there..."

* * *

"That was amazing!" - Jaden Yuki had barely sat down and at his own exclamation, seemed all but ready to bounce off his seat again. His brown eyes sparkled with utter amazement and admiration as he looked at Yusei, who was calmly sitting next to him - "So that's how a Riding Duel actually looks like, so cool! And your friend Jack totally kicks ass!"

"Well, he isn't title the "King" for nothing" - Yusei smiled back fondly at his friend's reaction. The duel had ended less than a minute ago, and the arena had broken into a loud, rhythmless buzzing nest, with Jaden eagerly putting in his part. What a strange thing fate is - Yusei reflected, gaze trailing the figure he had once expected to never see again. He had just been about to push away this huge crush he had on Jaden after their encounter against Paradox, seeing as they would never have renunited; when out of the blue said boy had appeared at his door, all smiles, saying a spirit granted him a wish to travel through time so he had decided to pay Yusei a visit as though it was the most normal thing in the world.

Yusei had not looked farther into the matter, feeling somewhat happy that Jaden had decided to come visit him, of all people, but ever since then, his feelings towards the time-travelling duelist had only grown stonger and stronger, to the point where he felt nervous just being near the boy, and most of the time he tried to keep a distance between them, fearing that any lingering touch could give it all away. It was only a matter of time though, before either this dam for his emotions got overwhelmed and broke, or Jaden decided it was time to return to his own timeline, which would probably bring negative results to his life. Even so, Yusei was still too afraid to make a move. He supressed a sigh...

"...sei. Yusei!" – The man in question snapped out of his contemplation at his name being called right beside his ears and a hand waving in front of him. Jaden was leaning towards him with a concerned look: "You looked very...sad all of a sudden. What's wrong?"

And the boy was close, so close, Yuse could feel Jaden's warm breaths on his skin and see every single spark in those large brown eyes. He quickly nodded while turning away just a bit to try to even out the best his heart had just skipped:

"I-I'm alright, sorry. Just thinking about...stuff. Anyway, you were saying?"

"Is the next duel starting?"- Jaden pointed at the stage at the center of the arena where the MC, who had a ridiculous hairstyle, he noted, had come up from the hidden elevator hidden beneath and the spotlights pointed at the man. No, the interval between two Riding Duels should last at least 15 minutes – but before Yusei could reply, a shrill voice broke through the air from the speakers:

"Ladies and gentlemen, I am sure the opening duel of the Tournament has gotten you heated up for this exciting day, are you?"

The crowd cheered loudly as an answer, and he gave them a second to settle down before speaking up again:

"Well then, I would like to ask a question: How many of you are here with your significant other today?...Oh, quite a lot, I see. And I'm sure that you all know what special day this is? Yes, that's right, it's Valentine's Day – the holiday of Love!" – The MC made a dramatic gesture with his arm, and Yusei frowned:

"What are they up to?" – He was so not in the mood to be reminded that he was here with the one person he wished to be his 'significant other', while being surrounded by lovey-dovey couples who should've gone to a cafe instead of a stadium where they can bask in their intimacy without Duel Monsters getting in the way. Jaden sounded surprised:

"So you haven't seen this happening before either?"

"No, not really."

"So, all the people in love here today, do you want to play a game with us? The game's called 'Kiss Cam', brought to you exclusively at Toue Dueling Tournament!"

"'Kiss Cam'?" – Jaden tilted his head to the side curiously while Yusei did a mental face-palm. He had no idea what this was but it screamed bad news.

"It's very simple, here we have a special camera called the 'Kiss Cam'," – The MC pointed at the set of display screens hung from the dome of the area, wich showed a live footage of the audience coverd in red around the edge, leaving only a heart shape in the center and a green "KISS CAM" text on top – "and it'll be lurking across you lovers' faces, looking for the cutest, most romantic couple, and when the camera stops at one, those two people have to share a loving, sweet kiss!~"

Gasps, laughter, yays and claps could be heard spreading all around. Jaden's eyes just went wider and Yusei silently groaned.

"Take this chance to show all the people in this arena here today your beautiful love story! And that's not all: couples featured on the 'Kiss Cam' today will be put on our website to be voted for the title "Romance of the Tournament", and the winners will receive a free two-week trip to Venice as special guests of our sponsor, Kaiba Corp., in the grand opening of Kaibaland Venice!"

Now this caused everyone to perk their ears up and chat excitedly. Many couples turned to grin at each other, already giddy. The MC observed their reactions, and smiled:

"And now, let's get started!"

"Well...this is weird." – Jaden stated, staring blankly at the billboard as the camera stopped at the first couple, who after a few seconds of gaping at their own image, bashfully leaned in to kiss. The crowd eagerly cheered for them, with audible 'aww's every now and then. If Yusei was strongly agreeing with the brown-haired boy (which he secretly was, by the way), he didn't show it:

"You think so?"

"Yeah, no, I mean, I'm imagining how it feels like to be put up there, beong watched by all these people. Must be really embarrassing...Then again if it's with the person you love then it must be nice."

"Why, does Judai-san have someone in mind he wants to do this with?" – Yusei smirked, though the thought itself heaved his chest. Jaden blushed and shook his head, hands waving furiously:

"N-no! Of course not! I'm just saying...if it were me I probably would be too nervous and embarrassed to do that, especially to the person I like...N-not that I have one, by the way!"

"They did say they'd look for the most romantic couple though, which probably means they'll only point it at those who are really willing to do it so I guess it's fine."

"True... By the way, when is the next duel starting?"

"Soon. Less than 5 minutes actually, according to the schedule." – Replied Yusei, looking at the clock on the observatory tower.

"I've heard that one of the two duelists uses a deck that can strike exceptionally fierce attacks in just a few turns, I can't wait to see that!" – Upon the mention of dueling, Jaden's eyes immediately shone with anticipation and his voice a bit more high-pitched, which brought a smile to Yusei's lips. He never noticed how he had been doing it a lot lately around this time-traveller, allowing pleasant feelings take over his face like it's so natural, but then again maybe it's the contagious aura of cheerfulness that the other brought that felt natural and just right, he could easily let it get to him without caution.

"You mean Zakora Lance? That's true, his deck consists of many powerful cards focusing on inflicting heavy damage on the opponent at a fast pace, not giving then the chance to counter. However, he is face with a formidale one this time."

"Really?" Now Jaden was giddy again, and the turned to the center of the arena - "Wow, I wonder when they'll start introduc- Oh my God..."

"Judai-san, what's wrong?" – Yusei worriedly asked Jaden, who put on a shocked expression as soon as he turned his eyes towards the billboard, but upon receiving no answer, he followed the brunet's line of sight.

Only to mirror his reaction.

Now framed inside the heart sape of not only one, but all the gigantic display screens around the arena, were none other than Yusei and Jaden, along with their bewildered faces.

_ This can't be happening..._

But before the black-haired man could fully register the situation, someone sitting a few rows behind them shouted:

"Look! Isn't that Yusei Fudo, the "Shooting Star of Satellite"?"

"It really is him! And his partner looks so much like the legendary Jaden Yuki!" – Another voice to their right.

"Aww, they actually look really cute together!" – This time, a female voice, followed by a man's laughing:

"C'mon guys, you're on the 'Kiss Cam', you know what to do!"

And thus began a chaotic storm of voices as 149.998 people are enlightened to the appearance of this extraordinary ouple on the romantically fun game they'd been enthusiasticall following.

Romantically fun, that was if Yusei wasn't feeling blood rushing up to his face, all the while way too conscious of the person sitting next to him as well as the task they were "assigned" to. The sound of his own heartbeat was so loud it almost blocked out all the noise around him, and he tried to look anywhere but those god-forsaken LED boards while wishing over and over in his head for the camera to slide to someone else or the electricity to go out on the whole city (which, of course, wasn't working).

Jaden, on the other hand, remained awestruck for a few more seconds. Then he remembered what it meant to be the center of that 'Kiss Cam' thing, along with – he slapped both his hands on his face as it turned 50 shades redder – YUSEI, of all people. Oh no, he was going to faint; and even if he wouldn't, Yusei would probably hate him after this, and that's the last thing he ever wanted to happen.

Because...well...he liked Yusei. A lot. Probably.

He didn't how or when it had started but when that spirit told him to make a wish the first thing that came to his mind was getting to see the blue-eyed duelist who was like an angel sent from Heaven again, and he had never thought about where this would lead to. He had thought about making his feelings known, and see if it worked out, but this is NOT the way he had wanted to do it, oh God no no no no no...

But the audience was either oblivious, or way too aware of the thick tension forming betwen the two duelists, so beginning with one person standing up, in spread like fire on gasoline and in less then ten seconds it felt like the whole world around them was shaking with the continuous "KISS! KISS! KISS!" chanting by thousands of voices in sync with thousands of hands clapping and even emty plastic bottles smashing in unision; the feeling of all these eyes on him made Yusei paralyzed and he was rendered a bit more breathless everytime that combination of sound crashed down on him. To the point where, okay, perhaps kis- touching lips with Jaden wasn't such a terrifying idea anymore; besides it was among the things Yusei had always wanted to do wheneve he looked at this beautiful lively, gorgeous teenager anyway, so he might as well just get this over with.

Might as well get this over with. That was what Yusei thought when he took a deep breath and lifted his head up to face Jaden, only to find out that the boy was already looking at him, brown eyes laced with confusion and a little bit of fear, as though asking Yusei for protection, for shielding him from all these horrendous events; and the older ma realized this was a good excuse as any. That anytime at all, he could look at that well-crafted face, flushed with a hint of anticipation and feel his heart stop dead in its track; he could admire those slightly parted lips that appeared to inviting in the most innocent way and reach his hand out to touch it with his thumb before leaning in slowly.

And the world suddenly went mute when he felt the gap closing faster than his own speed. He had not time to be surprised, however; all the pressure of the momet was washed off his chest by relief and euphoria.

The moment their warmth touched, it all came back to life. The crowd exploded with colorful cheers, rumbling even louder than before as the two becamse absorbed in tracing the texture of each other's lips with their own, and Yusei briefly wondered if this outburst of applause and whistles was the cause for the fireworks dancing in his eyes or the butterflies flapping their wings wildly in his stomach. Their kiss was slow, unsure and a mere pressing of inexperienced mouths at first, but then Jaden leaned in even more, and Yusei knew the boy could feel his smile as he tilted his head a bit to the side in order to deepen these non-verbal confessions thay's just made to each other.

After what felt like long enough, their lips parted but their noses were kept touching. Gold-tinted hazel locked with midnight blue in a loving gaze whose mesmerizing aura only they could drown in. The uproar of the overexcited audience had died down, the familiar opening songfor the tournament could be heard. But neither Jaden nor Yusei had the heart to tear away from this sacred moment, being too keen on taking in every single detail of the wonder zoomed in before them, feeling the other's soft, uneven breathing on their faces.

Yes, a good excuse as any.

* * *

"Jack! I know you were behind this!"

"What are you talking about, Yusei?" – Jack raised an eyebrow at his furious friend (who was still blushing bright red from head to toes, Jack had to force himself not to burst out laughing) stomping towards where the blond was lounging on the couch, a tablet displaying an electric newspaper issue in hand.

"You know full well what I'm talking about!" – Yusei stood in front of Jack, arms crossed with an indignant scowl on his face – "That whole 'Kiss Cam' thing was your idea, wasn't it?"

"No it wasn't" – And that wasn't an all-out lie. Only 25%. Jack casually swiped a page on the tablet – "But I saw that you were in need of a nudge in the right place at the right time anyway, so why complain?"

"I was not in need of a nudge or anything!" – Yusei exclaimed, hands fisted by his sides. At this statement Jack set his tablet down and gazed at his frustrated friend with a smirk:

"You wasn't? Try telling me that it didn't help you make a huge-ass advance towards Kuriboh Head that you would never have gotten the guts to, otherwise."

This made Yusei bite his lips and after a few seconds of struggling (and failing) to come up wth more accusations just to make his bastard of a best friend feel at least a bit guilty for having caused him so much embarrassment he would never be able to live down (though not without positive consequences, Yusei's stomach fluttered at the thought, but that was another matter), the black-haired mechanic turned his back and stormed out of the garage in the same manner he had made his entry.

"Do tell Jaden that you both owe me one!" – Jack called at Yusei's retreating back but he was fast out of sight, leaving behind mumbled threats about how he would make Jack pay for this and a very confused Crow at the door.

"What was that?" – The red-head asked, unsure of whether to be freaked out at Yusei looking so pissed off or Jack snickering after him like and evil child witnessing the outcome of his cruel prank.

"Somebody still thinks he's not ready for Venice." – Jack merely shrugged, picked up his tablet and continued reading the front-page article with big, bold headlines: "WINNER OF 'ROMANCE IN THE TOURNAMENT' ANNOUNCED!" including a huge photo of a brunet and a black-haired man framed in a heart shape with a green, girly 'KISS CAM' text on top.

**~~3 End 3~~**

**Wingman! Jack is the best haha XD And I find Yusei calling Jaden "Judai-san" like he did in the Japanese dub of BBT extremely cute 3**

**Thanks for reading, please drop a review and tell me what you think! :3**


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